We used to start before sunrise, Blue Peter in the bows of the canoe, and Jack in the stern, both paddling quickly, while I sat amidships in the bottom. No Europeans I ever saw can paddle so silently, swiftly, and surely as the Indians on the Mosquito coast. They hold the shaft of the paddle almost upright, never touching the gunwale therewith, or splashing rudely in the water. On the contrary, the broad part of the paddle dips as clean as a knife, and the canoe glides with a perfectly smooth and rapid motion, so that, did you not observe how fast the water ripples by, you would hardly think you were moving at all. When pursuing the manatee, our usual game, the head of the canoe was turned up the creek, to the higher banks, where the shore was sedgy and low, where the mangroves reared their dismal groves, and where, the water gradually becoming brackish and muddy, there is found floating and waving from the banks, the long narrow-bladed grass on which the manatee loves to feed. The creature we hunted is a harmless beast, like a great seal. It is a misfortune for himself that he has tender white flesh, tasting like veal, and that his skin makes very good thongs and straps, which the Buccaneers use for divers purposes. Were it not so, he might float unmolested in the warm muddy water, nibbling the streaming grass, as the lazy current carries his heavy form slowly up and down the mangrove canals, twinkling his little pig-like eyes, and anxiously jerking his great stupid-looking head, if a cayman rolls with a splash from the muddy bank into the river, or a squatting flock of wild-ducks rise with a whirr from the sedgy surface of a neighbouring pool. But the poor manatee, being good to eat, must submit to be harpooned and eaten. When we came to the feeding-ground which he loves, the Indians would paddle with double caution, and Blue Peter, who was the striker, would carefully examine his harpoon, and see that it lay convenient to his hand. The spear used for capturing the manatee is about eight feet long. The iron barb, a heavy and sharp piece of metal, is attached to the thicker end, and to the other is fastened a circular knob called the bobwood, round which is wound a strong line, one end of which is fast to the bobwood, the other to the iron of the harpoon. When the weapon is flung, the barb alone sinks into the creature’s flesh, the staff coming unloosed from the iron, and the line rapidly unwinding from the bobwood, as the stricken creature dives in its agony and fear. The Indians then paddle after the staff, and having seized it, gradually wear out the strength of the game, and kill it.